djured him,
in the name of the French nation, not to translate this passage, so
offensive to their delicacy, (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 94.) Like
him, I have contented myself with a transient allusion; but the little
animal which Julian names, is a beast familiar to man, and signifies
love.]

But the work of public reformation would have remained imperfect, if
Julian had only corrected the abuses, without punishing the crimes, of
his predecessor's reign. "We are now delivered," says he, in a familiar
letter to one of his intimate friends, "we are now surprisingly
delivered from the voracious jaws of the Hydra. [59] I do not mean to
apply the epithet to my brother Constantius. He is no more; may the
earth lie light on his head! But his artful and cruel favorites studied
to deceive and exasperate a prince, whose natural mildness cannot
be praised without some efforts of adulation. It is not, however, my
intention, that even those men should be oppressed: they are accused,
and they shall enjoy the benefit of a fair and impartial trial." To
conduct this inquiry, Julian named six judges of the highest rank in the
state and army; and as he wished to escape the reproach of condemning
his personal enemies, he fixed this extraordinary tribunal at
Chalcedon, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; and transferred to the
commissioners an absolute power to pronounce and execute their final
sentence, without delay, and without appeal. The office of president was
exercised by the venerable praefect of the East, a second Sallust, [60]
whose virtues conciliated the esteem of Greek sophists, and of Christian
bishops. He was assisted by the eloquent Mamertinus, [61] one of the
consuls elect, whose merit is loudly celebrated by the doubtful evidence
of his own applause. But the civil wisdom of two magistrates was
overbalanced by the ferocious violence of four generals, Nevitta, Agilo,
Jovinus, and Arbetio. Arbetio, whom the public would have seen with
less surprise at the bar than on the bench, was supposed to possess the
secret of the commission; the armed and angry leaders of the Jovian
and Herculian bands encompassed the tribunal; and the judges were
alternately swayed by the laws of justice, and by the clamors of
faction. [62]

[Footnote 59: Julian, epist. xxiii. p. 389. He uses the words in writing
to his friend Hermogenes, who, like himself, was conversant with the
Greek poets.]

[Footnote 60: The two Sallusts, the praefect of